


A Friendship Worth Fighting For

by notaverse



Category: Gokusen (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-02
Updated: 2011-10-02
Packaged: 2017-10-24 06:12:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/259960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notaverse/pseuds/notaverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt from kriszeth: <i>hayaryu - growing up together and apart and back together again and again.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	A Friendship Worth Fighting For

Kids fight about stupid things. When Hayato and Ryuu were seven, they fell out for a whole two days because Ryuu said Hayato ran like a girl. The entire forty-eight hours, they refused to play with each other, and only made up when Ryuu agreed that actually Take, with his pretty little hairband that his mother liked him to wear, was more of a girl than either of them.

When they were twelve, Take was still wearing headbands and Hayato still ran like a girl, but he didn't do much running anymore - people tended to run from him instead, though Ryuu never did. Hayato started his growth spurt before most of their class; without the weight to match he was a lanky pre-teen standing head and shoulders above his best friend. It wasn't so bad except when their class had to play basketball and the teacher decided the two of them should captain opposing teams. Both were fit, both were competitive, and both were determined to make as many baskets as possible. Hayato took full advantage of his height and his team won the game by a good margin. If only he hadn't been such a bad winner, Ryuu might not have ignored him for a week, which was as long as it took him to figure out what he'd done wrong and volunteer to practise shooting hoops with Ryuu as a peace offering.

When they were fifteen, Hayato discovered _girls_. Girls were exotic creatures. They didn't have any in his school, but he saw them out and about, with their pretty faces and short skirts, and wondered what it would be like to touch them. He didn't know how to approach them so he tried to talk to Ryuu about it, because he figured Ryuu would be thinking along the same lines and might have some ideas, but somehow Ryuu hadn't gotten around to discovering girls yet. When Ryuu told him he was getting annoying, talking about girls all the time, Hayato teasingly asked him if he preferred boys. Hayato's school uniform took a lot of damage, but not as much as their friendship, which didn't get repaired until Ryuu phoned, late one night, and said it was a stupid fight and he never wanted to discuss the matter again.

By the time they were seventeen, Hayato knew better than to expect Ryuu to share the enthusiasm he and their friends had for girls. He'd go along on group dates, if strong-armed into it, but he'd never volunteer himself or make more than the minimum effort required. Hayato didn't understand why until one afternoon on the school roof, both of them cutting class, having a heated argument about a fight they were due to have with Jounan Tech. The struggle turned physical. Fingers clenched tight in the folds of uniform jackets; tempers flared as the gap closed between them. Ryuu pressed down, then, and kissed his best friend roughly on the lips. He pulled away before either of them really registered what had just happened, and it was Hayato's turn not to want to talk about it. They never did.

Even in their final year of high school, it was still a secret they'd buried between them, with Ryuu offering half a reluctant apology and Hayato shrugging it off like it had been a joke, a one-time thing, a stupid, rash act in the heat of the moment and there was nothing more to be said.

But the biggest fight they had that year wasn't stupid at all. Hayato couldn't understand why Ryuu would betray his friends by bowing down to Ara High - especially couldn't understand why Ryuu would betray _him_. Hadn't they always done everything together? Couldn't they accomplish anything, if only they were side by side? Ryuu wouldn't even tell him why, and after his father made a deal with the superintendent and he stopped coming to school, it was easy for them to avoid each other.

It would've been easier if Ryuu had died. At least then, Hayato could've grieved and moved on in time. But this way the hurt lingered beneath the surface, gnawing at him whenever someone mentioned the missing member of 3-D. It took a crazy new teacher and another battle with Ara High to bring them back together, a reunion that involved the whole class but ultimately came down to a new understanding between the two of them - one that said sacrificing your pride for your friends was something you could actually be proud of. Ryuu regained his honour in the eyes of his peers and Hayato regained a friendship he'd thought lost forever. Slowly, on the path to graduation, they gained something they'd never had before.

They're not kids anymore but they still have stupid fights every now and then. Hayato complains when Ryuu comes back from work too knocked out from teaching delinquent kids to remember he'd promised to pick up milk on the way home. Ryuu gets annoyed when Hayato forgets it's his turn to cook and they end up eating instant ramen _again_. Hayato argues that they don't have enough space; Ryuu retorts that if they're going to get a bigger apartment, it would help if Hayato could contribute more to the rent. It's true that they don't really have enough space and visitors usually ask, with a sly grin, which one of them gets stuck on the couch every night.

Hayato says they flip a coin for it. Ryuu smiles to himself and says nothing at all. They do flip a coin, but only when they fight. The rest of the time, they don't need one.


End file.
